Posts Tagged ‘polygamy’

French officials are considering yanking the citizenship of a Muslim polygamist, even though he now claims his wives are merely mistresses, which is something he believes is a cornerstone of French culture.

Problems for Algerian-born butcher Lies Hebbadj began last week when police ticketed a wife for wearing a full face veil while driving a car. Officials discovered records indicating that Hebbadj has 4 wives and 12 children.

But he’s claiming at least 3 of the women are merely lovers, though they appear to be collecting spousal social welfare benefits under his name. “As far as I know, it is not forbidden to have mistresses in France, nor is it forbidden under Islam,” said Hebbadj, who lives in Nantes. “If you lose your French nationality for having mistresses, then a lot of French men would have been stripped of their citizenship.”

The woman, reports Spanish daily Segre, is named Aicha Lopez and she filed a report against the imam Abdelwahab Houz for marrying her when he was already married to another woman and for having abused and abandoned her during a trip to Morocco. The imam denies both accusations.

Based on the report, Aicha Lopez suffered the abuse a month ago in Rabat, where the couple went on vacation. The imam, according to Aicha Lopez, reportedly received a phone call from his previous wife, and when the husband learned that he was discovered, he allegedly became violent, forcing his Spanish wife to get out of their car and return to Spain alone. Afterwards, she reported her husband for polygamy and abuse; accusations that the Guardia Civil of Lleida is currently investigating.

A Saudi court has sentenced an employee of the kingdom’s religious police to 120 lashes for marrying six women.

The man said he was not educated enough to know that Islam does not allow men to marry more than four women at any one time, said an official at Ahad al-Massarha court in the southern province of Jazan.

“The judge did not believe him. Nobody believed him. I honestly did not,” the official said.

The court banned the man from standing as a preacher and leading prayers, ordered him not to travel abroad for a five-year period and to memorise two chapters from the Koran.

The accused, in his fifties, is not a member of the Saudi Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice’s morals squad but holds an administrative position there, the official said.

Shaikh Abdul-Mohsen al-Qaffari, spokesman of the virtue and vice commission, said it was the commission that discovered the case. Judge Salman al-Waadani, who pronounced the sentence, could not be reached for comment.

With a kitchen knife, the woman cuts off her husband’s penis, then stabs him to death. His physical abuse and his decision to take a new wife drove her to such action. Polygamy is legal in Bangladesh but is a rapidly waning social practice. Only 10 per cent of men have more than one wife.

Her husband’s extreme physical abuse and his decision to take a fourth wife drove a woman in Bangladesh to cut off his penis with a kitchen knife and then repeatedly stabbed him to death. The incident occurred last 10 February in the village of Bogra, Gazipur District (Dhaka Division). The woman is currently being held on murder charges.

Chad Sultana, 28, and her husband Mohammed Nazrul Islam, 45, are the main actors in this drama. He had two more wives and was planning to take a fourth one in accordance with Islamic law, even if the practice is not widespread in Bangladesh.

The couple lived in a flat. The owner of the building where the couple lived, Halim, speaks about the tragedy.

“On 10 February around 3 pm, the woman cut off his penis to avenge a life of misery he had forced upon her,” he said. “She then stabbed him to death. She used a bothi, a sharp cooking knife.”

Chad Sultana was Mohammed Nazrul Islam’s third wife. She grew tired of his unfaithfulness and was opposed to his decision to marry a fourth time. The two often quarrelled and he mistreated and beat her on several occasions. He would often bate her, saying that “it was legal to marry up to four times under Islam” and that she had no right to oppose his plans.

The landlord said that the couple had a 13-year-old daughter, Mim. “Now that her father is dead and her mother is in prison, she could become destitute.”

Joydevpur police chief said that Chad Sultana is being held on charges of first-degree murder.

Polygamy is legal in Bangladesh, but is a rapidly waning social practice. It touches only 10 per cent of all adult males, much less than in other countries where it is legal.

In some cities, hefty taxes have been imposed on polygamy, with the tax increasing for each new wife a man takes.